Tuesday 20 May 2008

Where there's a knead.....

My job is nothing if diverse which makes it a real joy mostly and a real...um difficult thing sometimes. The joys do outweigh the difficulties though...most of the time.
However, to reflect the diversity, on Thursday the culmination of a number of months planning, on and off, will result in the Parent and Toddler Training Day - ta dahh!

Our theme is 'Helping You to Build' and we'll be learning about various ways P and T groups can be effective mission and ministry in a church situation.There are some quality folks coming to lead the sessions and me! My session is called the Nitty Gritty and is prempted by a creative prayer time where the delegates will be encouraged to 'become like little children' and use various messy and creative media to connect with God. I don't want to give too much away as people who are coming might read this and change their minds...however, one of the less messy things is Playdough and I have just returned from my kitchen having made 2 batches of the stuff. I'm not sure that my saucepan will be the same again.

So I followed some instructions for the first batch, which I chose to colour pink, but could tell from the start that it wasn't going well - a bit dry really.So I added more water cooked it some more and turned it out onto the worktop to knead , decided to push it to one side, no further comment required.

Fot the next batch I made it up as I went along - to be honest you don't have to be Gordon Ramsey to make this stuff, but it did feel pretty nifty using a pinch of this and a handful of that etc. I chose to colour this batch blue and it is rather lovely. Turned out onto the top, responded to the kneading beautifully and is now cooling off rather smoothly and proudly.

I returned my attention to the pink mass - don't know if you were bought up on Dr Suess, but in one of the stories, the Cat in the Hat comes to help clear away the snow and somehow mums' dress ends up being washed in the bathtub, leaving a pink rim around the bath which proceeds to colour everything as the Cat attempts to clean that too - soon the snow is completely pink.
well I had a vision of that as I watched this stuff try to hide behing the bag of flour and slope off behind the microwave.

I started to knead it some more and you know, it's still pretty dry, still needs some work, but is responding to the kneading and it's not rocket science to relate that to us is it?

Mostly people respond to feeling needed - simple really :)

Sometime people need to be kneaded too - but that's for another blog I think.

PS My little old lady was visited today and one of things 'they' were planning to do on the basis of what she told them on the phone is get her a grant to install central heating - cool...or rather, hot!

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I used the dough within a sheltered housing complex and asked the residents to make something which was important to them.. one lady made a beautiful rose (a tear jerk moment when you saw her hands!!) and she said that icing cakes had been her hobbie - another gentleman made a little lady (another tear jerk moment cos his wife died a year ago)obviously the little lady was his wife who he told me 'was and is the most treasured person in his life'..so homemade dough is good for all ages!! have fun on Thursday.

Liz said...

I love seeing adults play with kids stuff - the messier the better. Something happens and we become full of awe and wonder again, possibilities are endless and people DO voice things that they might never have mentioned without the stimulation of dough,Gloop, bubbles, a plate full of shaving foam, chalk and black paper, a distorting mirror or a tray full of sand...and I think for older folk it does evoke long buried memories. Judy, it seems to me that when you're not laughing, you must be crying!

my thoughts said...

Playdough is the greatest invention, it is a wonderful toy for kids and very theraputic for grown ups. I use to love being on the playdough table when i was doing my nusery nurse training watching the kids squish and sqeeze the dough was fanstinating

Anonymous said...

This is very true Liz - I'm either laughing, crying or crying with laughter which then normally then leads to hiccups and burps (too much informtion I know):))

Dawn said...

When did you change you mood?! Just noticed.